THE explosion of online shopping platforms continues to change the buying habits of Filipinos. One of these is Carmudi, which set up shop in the country last year and managed to attract car buyers and sellers in the country. Currently, Carmudi Philippines has around 25,000 in its inventory ranging from cars, motorcycles and commercial vehicles.
In an interview with the BusinessMirror, Carmudi Philippines Managing Director Subir Lohani shares the company’s plans, optimism and expectations.
Q: How would you describe your current job in Carmudi Philippines?
A: My job as managing director essentially entails looking after the entire operations of our Philippines business such as operations, growth, marketing and other departments with the help of my talented team of managers. It is challenging, fast paced and fun. Most important, you see that your efforts have a fast and direct impact on the business
Q: Can you cite the differences with your previous work as a banker?
A: It is different in terms of the client base and business. But the same skills that you learn in investment banking such as working hard, tenacity and not accepting failure translate into building a fast moving Internet start-up
Q: Did you to reinvent yourself, so to speak, when you joined Carmudi Philippines?
A: In a way. Luckily, I grew up in the Philippines so adapting to the cultural aspects of running a business here was no problem. However, it was different in having to handle a full work force, as well as steep learning of the Internet business model execution.
Q: Being assigned in an emerging market, how bullish is Carmudi in the Philippines?
A: Carmudi and I are extremely bullish on the market especially with strong economic growth, smartphone penetration rate and increased mobile-data penetration. With the growing middle class we see the vehicle market continuing its growth rate and possibly outperforming projections. Having grown up in the Philippines also, I have seen the rapid development of the country and I expect this to continue going forward.
Q: So far, how is the engagement with customers through the Internet platform?
A: We are seeing high growth in users using our platform. Our views per month increased from more than 400,000 in December to more or less 700,000 currently. Further, the Philippines has a history of mobile phone usage with mobile penetration at more than 111 percent and having the title of the texting capital of the world. The Philippines also has the second highest penetration rate of Facebook in the world at 93 percent after Brazil. Combine all this with a young and Internet-savvy population, it is a natural progression for people to go online for their needs due to convenience, product variety and everybody’s busy schedules. Taking offline businesses online increases overall productivity and time spent for standard day to day tasks allow people to cherish their free time.
Q: How does the company assess the awareness of the local market in using the Internet for buying cars?
A: The assessment is based on a a broad range of macro factors. For example, car sales in the Philippines has been experiencing record growth according to car business group’s data. The consistent and sustained gross domestic product growth is contributing to this. Another reason is the traffic jam: Imagine going to 10 dealerships in one day! It is near impossible. Our platform allows users to put specific requirements for their vehicles and really drill down on the vehicle they want for a final inspection. Our platform also allows users to search for their dream car faster, easier and more efficient.
Q: How does the company view its competitors?
A: Competitors using the traditional offline classified model will eventually completely lose ground and will be forced to reinvent themselves. The market is shifting online.
Q: What is the impact of the $25-million funding to the company?
A: The $25 million will be used to further expand our footprint in emerging markets and strengthen our product offerings. It was a very successful funding round and shows the growing investor confidence in our business model and operations.
Q: What challenges do you see in markets like the Philippines?
A: All emerging countries have their own unique problems. While still low, mobile-data usage and penetration in the Philippines is fast growing and platforms should be able to bridge the gap. There are of course operational issues, such as weather conditions, that affect our business model but we push through toward success nonetheless.
Q: What assurances can the buyer get to ensure the cars from Carmudi are A-1?
A: We do as much as we can to ensure the vehicles on our web site are not lemons. For example for our professional car dealership clients, we have a team that physically takes pictures and collects data for the vehicles listed on our platform. We also established quality-control procedures to try and prevent fraudulent listings. This includes telephone-number verification and price checks, among others. For private sellers, any listing posted on carmudi.com.ph must also go through our quality-control procedures before the product is made available online. However, there is no 100-percent way to ensure the quality of all the vehicles and so we are constantly trying to educate buyers on the proper procedures before buying a used car.